Survey complete, now what?

Piriz

Hi all,

I am sale agreed on a property in the city, the property was recently fully renovated. We are at the stage where the survey is complete and I received the report. The EA also stated that the vendors solicitor has forwarded the Engineers reports to my solicitor and they are ready to proceed to contract.

The survey report I received has highlighted a number of issues.
I am wondering how I broach these issues? who I communicate with and what else might be involved? i'm hoping to avoid pitfalls etc.

Firstly, am I required to forward the engineer survey report to the Estate Agent?
if not how do I communicate what was advised in the report and I want to happen?

The survey report states that further examination (damp) and certification (plumbing and structural) are required.

any advice is greatly appreciated..

Archaeoliz

We're at a similar stage with similar findings from the engineers report. The Engineer's report is yours if you paid for it. I wouldn't just go by the vendor's engineer's report. You don't have to send it to the EA if you don't want to.

We emailed the estate agent and gave a precis of the findings and what we intended to do about it. We asked for copies of the certs to be provided as soon as possible and forwarded to our solicitor and have let the agent know that we are commissioning further investigations for the other issues raised.

It's caveat emptor and a huge amount of your/the bank's money you're spending so you're well within your rights to do any and all investigations you need to.

For us, an issue was the central heating which the vendor refused to put on as he said that the oil tank was empty. We've insisted that we need to either see it working or know if it's not operational (and as a gesture of goodwill have offered to go halves on a minimum order of oil). The EA insisted that the heating is working but I said as nicely as I could, that's fine but the onus is on us to check all of these things out so that's what we're going to do - especially as we're hoping to move in before the end of January (we live in hope!)

Good luck!

jeamimus

You need to balance the caution of the various professionals, the surveyor and the solicitor with some common sense.

The surveyors report will be couched in cautious language and recommendations that further surveys be done. This could be relevant and important advice, but it could also be self protection (from possible litigation) by the surveyor. Standard reports are always written like this. The solicitor will likely recommend to do additional work for the same reasons.

It would worthwhile to contact the surveyor and discuss the house in general with him. Find out what his overall opinion was and if there were any special triggers that worried him regarding eg structure or electrics (eg cracks, condition of fuse board etc), or if the recommendations for further investigations were simply because its good practice. When speaking with him you will get a better impression of the situation than by reading a report couched in protective language.

If there are issues, you need to decide how important they are and if you want to make an issue of them. You are, after all buying a second hand house as is, but the discovery that you might have to do some urgent repairs might alter your purchase decision. If this is the case you could go back to the vendor and discuss it with him (usually through the solicitors). He may be amenable to a gesture if he considers that the issue discovered was real and not apparent. However he may also consider that you are simply using the survey to try to reduce your sale agreed offer (it happens), and put the property back on the market.

Piriz

I really appreciate the quality replies above.

Is it realistic for me to direct the vendor to fund some of the investigations that are lacking?

Is it also unrealistic for me to revise my offer down to reflect some shortcomings in the property?

Archaeoliz

Piriz wrote: »

I really appreciate the quality replies above.

Is it realistic for me to direct the vendor to fund some of the investigations that are lacking?

No - they are for you so you know what you're buying. The vendor may pay to rectify some of the problems you uncover but not the uncovering of them (if that makes sense?) e.g. our survey showed the septic tank was really full so the vendor is going to empty it.

Is it also unrealistic for me to revise my offer down to reflect some shortcomings in the property?

Not unrealistic. It depends on the nature of the problems and how much extra work to the house is going to be needed. Even then, they don't have to accept the revised offer. You could ask, but don't threaten anything unless you're prepared to follow through.

Carawaystick

If there's no oil to heat the place, how will it be heated until January to avoid damp issues?

Archaeoliz

Carawaystick wrote: »

If there's no oil to heat the place, how will it be heated until January to avoid damp issues?

The owner had electric heaters in the rooms he was using. Not my house (yet). My concern is making sure the heating system works so I can get it going and remedy it when it is. Structural survey showed no water ingress and it was built in 1989 so has relatively decent DPM etc. I can't take responsibilty for heating a house which I haven't bought yet.

Carawaystick

Just making sure it was being heated...


Maybe try get your lawyer get a clause making the vendor responsible for the heating working put in the contract.?
Or else walk away.

Archaeoliz

Carawaystick wrote: »

Just making sure it was being heated...


Maybe try get your lawyer get a clause making the vendor responsible for the heating working put in the contract.?
Or else walk away.

Nice thinking but it's a proper fixer-upper in our case so it needs a whole new central heating system.;) just hoping we can get a few months out of what's there which is original to the house to wait until spring/summer to sort out a proper plan of how we're going to tackle the renovation.

Butters1979

This is it.
The survey will come back with things to look at or may need doing, this is so you understand exactly what you are buying. It is to avoid any nasty surprises.

You need to make sure you understand fully what issues are there and the potential costs to resolve are. The issues you highlighted are very vague right now. You then need to ask yourself are you still happy with the property and the price you are paying.

If these issues are either easy to fix or can be lived with short term, then I would not try to change the agreed price. People can get very annoyed with last minute renegotiations and may pull out of the deal.
If it means you no longer want to buy or can't afford to with the added repair costs then you may ask the vendor to accept a lower offer or even walk away.